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Her bass playing has been called “fiercely rhythmic,” her singing “sultry” and her looks “stunning.” Her songwriting prowess along with her album-producing and band leading savvy on Radio Music Society, her fourth and latest album, are described as showing “enormous ambition.”

“Whatever brings you in there to the show, whether you love big bands or got the tickets free, once you’re here you want to find a good experience,” she says on the eve of her North American tour starting Friday at Massey Hall.

Jazz discovered her in 2008 following the release of Esperanza, her Billboard-topping second album after Junjo, released on a small label in 2006. U.S. President Barack Obama heard of Spalding in time to have her perform at the White House during the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Prince, no stranger to discovering female musicians with major hair, witness Sheila E. his drummer for years, invited Spalding to tour with him after listening to the demos she sent him.

Most famously, Justin Bieber fans discovered “this little old jazz musician,” as Spalding has described herself — actually, she’s willow tall and 28 years old — when she nabbed the 2011 Grammy Award away from their heartthrob for Best New Artist for the 2010 album, Chamber Music Society. In retaliation, Spalding’s Wikipedia page was bombed with teenage venom with loyal Biebsters blasting, “go died in a hole” and “who the heck are you anyway?”

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Spalding has discovered how to distance herself from such media madness. “Actually, I wasn’t hassled by anything,” she said recently on the phone about Bieber-mania. “I met him backstage. He’s cool.”

These days, the non-jazz media and its public are themselves catching up with the multi-talented threat. Fashionistas have zeroed in on Spalding’s retro-style flair with the New York Times and Vogue having gone out on clothes-searching jaunts with her. And environmentalist are cheered that royalties from “Endangered Species” — her lyrics to music originally by saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter, a friend and mentor, and Joseph Vitarelli on Radio Music Society — go the Amazon Aid Foundation and Earth Justice.

While growing up in a tough area of Portland, Ore., Spalding worked for the United Way in the city’s Forest Park. Part of this tour’s merchandise sales go to Earth Justice.

If there’s a too-good-to-be true element to Spalding’s career, and often it seems that way, it’s balanced by something else well worth discovering: her intelligence. She quotes Duke Ellington — her jazz history knowledge runs deep — who wrote that a portion of people are attracted to truly creative music. “He was saying that in the ’60s, but it’s still a good point to make,” she adds.

An A-list of contemporary jazz players appear on Radio Music Society, from jazz drummers Jack DeJohnette, Terri Lyne Carrington and Billy Hart to saxophonist Joe Lovano and emerging singer Gretchen Parlato. Yet its overriding pop sensibility, in part due to production help from rapper Q-Tip, comes from Spalding’s memories of being a kid, listening to radio under the covers in her bedroom.

“I was only allowed to listen to classical station or jazz or oldies,” she says. “I didn’t like jazz as a kid. I didn’t have many albums. My mom wasn’t strict, but there definitely were boundaries. We weren’t allowed to watch much TV. So radio was the thing. When I got older I realized how precious that experience was. I want to contribute something back.”

Yet she rejects the idea she’s on a mission to bridge music genres. “I love arranging and I love writing,” she says. “But I am not trying to bridge anything. I wouldn’t call what I do a mission. It’s stuff I am interested in and excites me.”

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